Adventures of Zen Cowgirl living and being in Texas

Weaving Unattached

Today is the full moon, a lunar eclipse, the Blood Moon. In my Native American tradition-based women's circle, we are inspired this moon by "Weaves the Web", the prototypical mother of creative and destructive forces. Spider medicine is strong in this season and moon cycle.

Weaves the Web and grandmother spider speak to me of manifesting the divine in my daily life. Increasingly, my heart's desire is to simply be a daily, living expression of the Universal Love that I can sometimes touch in my meditations. Today's lesson to me is about the importance of creating and then letting go of those creations.

Why, if I weave with the conscious intent of channeling the divine, should I not hold tightly, as sacred, to what I create?

Because I am human.

Because I am human, I am an imperfect lens through which the light of Creation shines. My weavings are inevitably distortions of the indescribable beauty I feel inside. To become enamored of them is to attach to the distortion. To love without attachment is to honor the creative force embodied within them. To let go is to acknowledge the abundance from which they sprang and from which sufficiently more will arise to take their place.

Spider shows me that much of this world can interfere with my weaving; Substances, such as drugs and even caffeine, cause orb spiders to create distorted and dysfunctional webs. My addictions, lack of self-care, ego, and character defects distort what I intend to manifest in the world. Several species of poisonous spiders, such as the brown recluse and black widow, weave "disorganized webs", as if the poison that is their survival mechanism is reflected in their self-created environment.

A spider's web is not only sticky, but electrically charged, making it an effective filter for whatever is in it's environment. From that I learn I must be aware of the environment in which I choose to weave. What am I attracting to my web? What am I bringing to myself?

Spider teaches me that destruction and renewal are essential for continued evolution. Some spiders, such as orb-weavers, construct a new web each day, systematically destroying and eating the old one. Not discarded or dismissed, but integrated into the next cycle. As I grow toward wholeness, my creations become purer and more clearly a reflection of what is at the core of my being. I must be willing to create, destroy and re-create if I am to answer my heart's call.